Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to a musical instrument and method for a personal to create music. More specifically, there is an apparatus and method for modifying the sounds or sound energy on known instruments, like a saxophone, by replacing the support connecting struts with different material, like wood, stone, plastic, polymers or any other material not making up the majority of the subject instrument, in the instrument as disclosed in the specification of the invention and related claims.
State of the Art
It is well known to in the art how to create sounds on wind instruments, like saxophones and such. It is also well known in the art to provide a mouth piece and instrument body, with keys coupled thereto that are used to modify the sound energy to create various tones. The following patents are provided as examples of such known art, and are herein incorporated by reference for their supporting teachings to the disclosed invention, whereby:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,335,831 B2, by Laukat, issued in 2008, teaches of placing hard material on selected spots outside the tubing of wind instruments to affect the vibrational energy of the musical instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,439,429, by Wood al., issued Oct. 21, 2008, is a wind instrument with improved tonal characteristics by positioning an octave hole, an octave key mechanism, and a water key on a surface of the wind instrument that is not a tone rich region.
US Patent App. 2004/0003702 to Ahrens, pub. Date of Jan. 8, 2004, is a flute comprising first and second chambers in which sound is resonated and a tone hole disposed at and shared by the first and second chambers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,146 to Massa, issued Jul. 27, 1982, is a musical instrument combining a modified portion of a tenor saxophone with a modified portion of a soprano saxophone joined together by means of a bracket whereby one of the two instruments can be moved relative to the other to obtain proper alignment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,476,302, on Nov. 5, 2002, to Liu, is a saxophone with a main body, a neck, a treble connection set, a connection rod, and a link set.
US Patent App. 2005/0217464, to Onozawa et al., pub. Data of Oct. 6, 2005, is a hybrid saxophone whit the combination of an acoustic saxophone and an electronic system, and the electronic system includes key sensors for monitoring the keys and a tonguing sensor for detecting the position of the tongue together with a breath sensor and a lip sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,686, to Lewis, issued Mar. 23, 1982, is a wind instrument having a mouthpiece connected to the inner end of a tube forming an elongated resonating chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,555,986, to Keefer, issued Oct. 6, 1925, teaches of a tuning device for musical wind instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,774, to Loomis, issued 1936, teaches of new saxophone design.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,474,336, to Gillespy, issued in 1945, teaches of a new saxophone design.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,971,423, to LaBlanc, issued in 1961, teaches of a new saxophone bridge design.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,095, to Davidson, issued in 1997, teaches of a new dampening wedge material made of a polymeric material used in wind musical instruments to dampen the vibrational energy in the instrument by placing the polymeric material between opposing tubes of the instrument.
None of these prior art patents or applications teaches the disclosed invention either singly or in combination. What is needed in the art of musical instruments is an instrument or technique to modify, affect, alter, impact or adjust a wind instrument's vibrational energy or sound energy for certain tones that are created by the instrument at the manufacturing stage, after the initial manufacturing stage, by the musician, or in a time other than during the active playing of the instrument, which is typically only controlled by the keys and mouthpiece of the instrument. Additionally, there is a need for an instrument that has a design or a method for a person to be able to affect, alter, modify or impact the permanent sound or vibrational characteristics of the whole instrument musical range, or selected portions thereof